New directions in control loop assessment and diagnosis

Process control performance is a cornerstone of operational excellence in the refining, petrochemicals, pulp and paper and the mineral processing industry. Control performance assessment and monitoring applications have become mainstream in these industries and are changing the maintenance methodology surrounding control assets from predictive to condition based. There are many benefits from using controller performance assessment and monitoring, and more to come in the future as new methods for diagnosis and loop tuning advisors start to be included in the tools. The discussions at the IEE seminar on control loop assessment and diagnosis suggest it is a valuable technology in the process industries.